Jump Training with Lucky Lucy

Jump training with Lucky is easy because she loves to retrieve.  Throw the ball, she brings it back.  Throw it over the 2 foot high garden fence, she puts 2 jumps in for every throw (there and back), and she will keep this up until your arm is worn out.  We limit her to 20 jumps a day a few times per week, and figure we could keep her in shape for years even if we were crippled in a wheel chair!  I finally got a video of this activity, and using slow motion, you can really see her powerful physique in motion.  It's amazing how much effort goes into a dog jumping obstacles.

Now if only I can transfer her enthusiasm for this game onto the agility course!

Upwards and onward!

Motivation - Building Lucky's Drive

In my previous post I showed Lucky highly motivated by Lure Coursing -- giving chase to a white plastic bag!

Here I compare that video to this one of Lucky 1st agility run this past weekend in Kiln, typical of most of her runs where she exceeds course time but otherwise runs clean, it is becoming glaringly obvious to me that motivation is a major missing ingredient of her performance.

To watch video, click arrow:

Maxie is a whole different story.  He is usually very enthusiastic, most often exceeding course time by 5-20 seconds and often placing, unless I make a mistake.  Here's Maxie, running the same course as Lucky's video above, with a Q and 1st place, and 20 MACH points (meaning he ran the course 20 seconds faster than allowable course time).  His course time this run 54 seconds, compared to Lucky's 79 seconds. 
To watch video, click arrow:

With those long legs, Lucky could outrun Maxie any time.  It's all about M-O-T-I-V-A-T-I-O-N!  Building Drive has to become my most serious focus for her agility training.

No doubt in my mind, Lucky is a natural athelete.  She loves to run, fetch, tug, kill armadillos, chase goats, and now, run after lures. Whenever I have her tug toy in my hand in practice, she runs fast, weaves fast, races across the dogwalk, and stays focused. She's an enthusiastic jumper, too, when something she wants is on the other side.

So my challenge now is unlocking the secret to motivating her on the agility course like she's motivated at home. The scuttlebutt is that all this mental gymnastics is great for delaying the onset of alzheimers, which certainly motivates me to keep at it!

My writeup on the Kiln Trial will be my next post.  Some things worth mentioning happened there.  Then I'll post a video on Lucky's enthusuastic jumping exercises at home.

Upwards and onward!

Success With 1 Jump - Disk 1

Here are my notes from Susan Garrett's video series - Success With 1 Jump
She says:  You need a series of high value treats that your dog just loves, and your dog needs to know how to jump (Susan Salo's jump grids), also shadow handling (Greg Derrick's circle work), retrieve a toy, and must be able to hold a sit/stay.

4 Categories To This Course:  Focus, Reinforcement (Disk 1), Crosses and Turns, Understanding (Disk 2)

D=Dog   H=Handler

FOCUS:

When you raise your arm, D looks forward and find its line instead of looking at you.  Ds that can plan the stride they need on the first few jumps have an advantage.

#1 OBSTACLE FOCUS EXERCISES: To shape D's behavior to focus forward on the obstacle in front of them rather than on you.  Your arm out is a cue to find their line.
1. Sit D beside you. Throw a toy out several feet in front of you. When D looks down the line at the toy, release with a "Get It" command as you move forward, too. Work this from both sides.
2. Same thing, only stand farther from D's side.
3. Same thing, only stand farther in front of D as well as farther from D's side.  Throw the toy parallel to your position, not way out in front of you. 
4.  Same thing, only throw toy way out in front of you.  Move forward with D as he drives past you. Don't teach D to drive past you with you standing still.
4. Introduce a jump between D and toy. Release when D looks at the jump.
5. Same as 4, but don't throw the toy until D looks at the jump, and release both simultaneously.

If D isn't toy motivated, you can throw a treat or a treat container for them to touch then come back to you for a treat.

#2 HOLD A SIT IN THE PRESENCE OF A DISTRACTION.
1. Sit D beside you, drop toy on your other side.  If D remains seated, release.  Move toy a little further front at each successful repetition.

#3 CHANGE OF ARMS means CHANGE OF LINE, i.e., TURN. When you change your arms, that means turn.  If you don't change arms, D continues straight.
Have 2 toys, one in each hand. As in Step 4 above, throw out the toy (from the hand closest to D). After releasing D to "get it", call off by turning towards them (swinging your shoulders and other arm around (when he is half way there), and hold out the other toy. Say "here" or "come". When they get the hang of watching your arm que, you won't have to say anything.
Introduce a jump. Release D to a toy thrown way out beyond the jump, then begin changing arms to call them off to you for Toy #2.  Eventually introduce a 2nd jump at 90 degrees (near you) and throw 2nd toy over that.

SIT IN POSITION


#3 BUILDING VALUE/BUILDING DRIVE:
To get D to do anything consistently, you must build value into that behavior. D has to know that he will be rewarded for doing it. This applies to anything you want your dog to do. Don't hesitate to "reward your dog". You wouldn't work for nothing, would you? Not for long, anyway.

"Not all dogs are border collies or terriers with
non-stop built in drive, but it can be developed."

Let's say you want D to sit/stay reliably. What's their incentive? Do they get paid well and often for doing that? Once they develop the behavior to your satisfaction, do you quit paying them? Thruout a dog's career, you have to continue proofing all their skills or they will lose them.

#4 RELIABLE START LINE STAY:

Sit/stay your dog. Show D a toy. Drop it on the floor close by, far away, behind you, over a jump. When they look at YOU instead of the TOY, go over and reward them. Walk away, making all kinds of hand gestures, running too and fro. Then go back and reward them well, especially if they have not exhibited any kind of stressful behaviors, like moving their front feet, lying down, standing up, walking forward a step, barking, sniffing, looking to the side. Don't accept any crap. They should just sit perfectly still, looking at you, and not move from that exact spot until you release them to an obstacle.  Go back and reward lavishly now and then for good sit/stays throughout D's career.

Behind the start line, D should look at you, wherever you go, whatever you do, until you put your arm up, at which point D should look at the line.  This is important so D can calculate how he needs to adjust his stride to best take the obstacle(s) in the line.  However, D should not move until you give your verbal release cue.  To train this, go back and reward generously and often for a perfect sit/stay, but not always.  Be sure you place the treat in front of their nose, right where you want their head to be looking -- which is, down the line.

#5 DRIVING OVER OBSTACLES:
If you want your dog to drive enthusiastically over a string of jumps, start by building value into one jump. Sit/stay, or stand D behind a jump (close at first then gradually up to 30 feet away). Release to the jump from a variety of angles, and throw a toy or treat past it for them to drive to. When they fetch it and bring it to you, reward them. Play a short game of tug. Repeat. Gradually move yourself and D further from the jump, but move closer in again if they begin losing their drive. Add another jump. Then another. No drive, no reward. Know what behavior you are training for. (If they don't like toys, you can use food in a container. See my Touch Targets post.  Use your highest value rewards for this.)

"If going over a jump will earn them their most favorite thing in the world, then that jump will become their most favorite thing in the world."

Think of it as a big circle.  Position D in various spots behind the jump, and H moves to different places around the jump.  Work from the left as shown, then the right.

BUILDING THE VALUE OF ANY OBSTACLE:

BUILDING VALUE FROM A DISTANCE:  The further away you get from D, they quickly learn, the less likely you will return to reward a good sit/stay.  This leads to stress behaviors.  So it is important to go back and reward, or throw a toy back, release, no matter how far you roam.  If you are throwing a toy back at them, throw it BEHIND THE START LINE, not ahead of it, and don't let them break their perfect sit until you release.  They should never be trained to go forward from the start line unless it is to an obstacle.

START LINE REINFORCEMENT:
If you walk away from a sit/stay and are about to call D to you, only to discover D is already coming toward you, do you call them to you?  NO.  Any interaction with D, including a re-cue to sit, would be a reward, except going back and putting D back in a sit/stay position.

HOW PLACEMENT OF REINFORCEMENT OVER 1 JUMP AFFECTS THE JUMP:

UP = Go long and keep looking ahead, extend. (As D jumps, throw toy way ahead of jump)
CHECK = Go short, come tight, collect. (Release over the jump, don't throw toy, present it from your hand.) D turns tight around wing and back to you.

Start behind jump, and move further back as training progresses.

GOLDEN RULE: 
When you send D over jump at an angle, D follows the line of jump and curves back to you.  Only way D curves back the short (turquoise) route is you rear cross and change the line.


Now on to Disk #2, next post.

#2 Practice with Sheryl

Sheryl and Charlie came over at 8:30 a.m. and stayed til 1:30 p.m.  The time flew by as we worked on segments of a Back Yard Dog course from the August 2010 issue of Clean Run I had set up in my yard, which I later discovered I had left outside, and when it rained later that day, it got ruined.  I must contact Clean Run Magazine and see if I can purchase another copy.  Great issue.

We practiced "staying in a corridor" while sending the dog up to 10 feet out of it.  At left is the layout, and descriptions of what to do

By 10 a.m. it was 90 degrees, and even in the shade, we were sweating buckets.  The dogs wouldn't go any more.  We went in and watched the next 3 segments of Susan Garret's Success With 1 Jump.  We stopped and discussed each segment, rewound, discussed, and watched sections again until we were clear in our minds what Susan was talking about.  Each time we saw it a little differently, learned a bit more.  Sheryl took notes, and I made a copy of them to record here in my blog.  Now, that's how I like to learn.  And to find someone else who doesn't mind doing this with me is a real treat.

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Here's what the video covered:

Building Value/Building Drive:  Not all dogs are border collies or terriers with non-stop built in drive, but it can be developed.  Here's how.  To get a dog to do anything consistently, you must build value into that behavior. The dog has to know that he will be rewarded for doing it.  This applies to anything you want your dog to do.  Don't hesitate to "pay your dog".  You wouldn't work for nothing, would you?  Not for long, anyway.

Let's say you want your dog to sit/stay reliably.  What's their incentive?  Do they get paid well and often for doing that?  Once they develop the behavior to your satisfaction, do you quit paying them? Thruout a dog's career, you have to continue proofing all their skills or they will lose them.

Reliable Start Line Stay:
Sit/stay your dog. Show your dog a toy.  Drop it on the floor close by, far away, behind you, over a jump.  When they look at YOU instead of the TOY, go over and reward them.  Walk away, making all kinds of hand gestures, running too and fro.  Then go back and reward them well, especially if they have not exhibited any kind of stressful behaviors, like moving their front feet, lying down, standing up, walking forward a step, barking, sniffing, looking to the side.  They should just sit perfectly still, looking at you, and not move from that exact spot until you release them.

Driving Over Obstacles:
So you want your dog to drive enthusiastically over a string of jumps.  Start building value into one jump.  Sit/stay, or stand your dog behind a jump (close at first then gradually up to 30 feet away).  Release to the jump, and throw a toy past it for them to drive to.  When they fetch it and bring it to you, reward them.  Play a short game of tug.  Repeat.  Add another jump.  Then another.  No drive, no reward.  Know what behavior you are training for.  (If they don't like toys, you can use food in a container.  See my Touch Targets post.)

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Dog agility is an intricate subject, with so many permutations, it will take me a lifetime to understand even a fraction of it.  Not only dog psychology, but human psychology, is in play.  For instance, we can easily blame the dog for not driving forward, taking the jump with enthusiasm, when it is we who are slogging along, pointing our shoulders, arms or feet in the wrong direction, confusing the dog.  We don't practice enough to commit our actions to rote muscle memory, etc.  Never going to hold up in a fast-paced crunch that way.  Repetition, repetition, repetition.  Could get boring, but if you are looking at the fine details, it's not in the least repetitious!